Three weeks ago, Milwaukee Bucks center Larry Sanders was already looking ahead to this time. “I think I am ready,” Sanders told Sporting News. “I think I am ready to take that next step and be the face of the franchise.”

Milwaukee appears ready to firm up Sanders’ status in that capacity. On Friday, as first reported by Yahoo! Sports, Sanders and the team were nearing a four-year, $44 million contract extension that would make Sanders the highest-paid Bucks player.

The Bucks drafted Sanders (6-11, 235) with the No. 15 pick in 2010, and over his first two seasons, Sanders showed fits-and-starts progress. A tremendous shot blocker with as much potential to control the paint defensively as any player in the league (with the possible exception of Dwight Howard), Sanders was slow to show progress offensively and in defensive fundamentals—he averaged 7.4 fouls per 36 minutes in his second year.

But Sanders, 24, had a breakthrough in the second half of last season—on both ends. He averaged 12.1 points and 11.1 rebounds after the All-Star break, as well as 2.3 blocks. He raised his woebegone free-throw percentage to 67.2 in the second half, too.

“I think it was just getting more comfortable and learning from experience,” Sanders said. “Things do slow down and you see everything better and the game gets easier as you go along. But I still have a lot I want to work on.”

Defensively, according to Synergy Sports, Sanders allowed just 617 points when defending against 812 possessions—an average of .760 points per possession. That put him in elite company among starting centers—only Oklahoma City’s Kendrick Perkins and Memphis’s Marc Gasol (the defensive player of the year) ranked higher in fewest points per possession allowed.

Earlier in the offseason, the Bucks ended a standoff with Brandon Jennings—a restricted free agent who couldn’t come to terms with the team on an extension last year—by trading him to Detroit. The deal with Sanders would ensure that scenario will not be repeated.